


Sweet deceit. ( A John Plumptre fic)

by Dandelion_queen



Series: John & Constance [3]
Category: British Actor RPF, John Plumptre - Fandom, Miss Austen Regrets, Tom Hiddleston - Fandom
Genre: Affairs, Alternate Universe - Edwardian, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Edwardian Period, Extramarital Affairs, F/M, I Don't Even Know, Making Love, Passionate Sex, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Regency Period, Secret Relationship, Shameless Smut, Smut and Fluff, Stolen Moments, True Love, devoted wife, risky affairs, virgin/whore complex I suppose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 19:52:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5388164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dandelion_queen/pseuds/Dandelion_queen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John and Constance find themselves nearly caught in a compromising position by his wife Katherine (Mouse).<br/>After thinking it over Constance decides to end the affair that has been going on for years to avoid a scandal what with John's political career going from strength to strength.<br/>Broken hearted John turns to drink and avoids his family, only when Mouse unexpectedly calls in on Constance seeking advice do things change....<br/>I actually love Mouse, don't let her nickname fool you as she's anything but.<br/>Her reasons for staying are very much rooted in how society was back then plus she loves him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sweet deceit. ( A John Plumptre fic)

"John?"  
The couple both froze. A million thoughts running through their minds as they heard Katherine call his name.  
"I say John? Are you out here?"  
Constance held her finger up to her lips and flashed a warning at John with her eyes. She felt him trembling as the light footsteps drew closer to where they both stood, partially hidden behind the evergreen hedging.  
John closed his eyes, he couldn't bear the thought of seeing Mouse if she caught him in such a compromising position.  
"Katherine, come inside you'll chill your bones." the sing-song voice of Lady Hortense chimed in. Thankfully Katherine retreated back indoors to the seasonal revelry.  
"That was close." John breathed out, he hastily fastened his buttons while Constance adjusted his clothes so's not to arouse suspicion, he did the same for Constance. Looking respectable once more they both did their usual slipping back into the party separately.

"Where have you been?" Katherine snapped as John sidled up to her with a glass of sherry.  
"Sorry Mouse, I think I perhaps ate a little too much pheasant." John handed her the sherry then kissed her cheek.  
"You're cold." Katherine narrowed her eyes at him as he looked about nervously.  
"It was quite a walk to the lavatory and back, not all the rooms are heated." John lied.  
"Well I should like to go home now." Katherine drained her glass in an unladylike fashion and left John to make his apologies as they left early.  
He shot Constance a worried look from across the room but found her to be looking downhearted, no doubt at their earlier interruption.  
'To love two women is madness.' John thought to himself.  
The journey home in the coach was silent between him and Mouse. That had never happened before.  
"Why do you always disappear when we go out?" she rounded on him before stomping indoors.  
Nor had that.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Penny for your thoughts darling?"  
Constance looked up from her untouched breakfast as her husband smiled at her.  
He was a good man, a rogue and drinker in his youth yet he was sweet natured to Constance always. He'd mellowed in his late forties and preferred a quiet life nowadays.  
"Just a little out of sorts my love. I'll be fine after a walk." She rose from the table and pressed a kiss to his cheek.  
"I'll call in to see Doris."  
Keating nodded "And tell the little lamb the Captain was asking after her."  
He knew Doris was more like a daughter to Constance, she was deeply fond of her charges and did her best by them.  
"That I will." She told him.  
Captain Keating looked a little tired himself, he was still a good looking man of fifty with silver streaking his dark hair.  
Constance took a step back and kissed him softly on the lips.  
"I love you." Constance told him.  
"Now sweetheart..what has brought this on?" Keating held her in his arms.  
"Merely the thought I don't think I tell you enough but I do my darling, I do." Constance was torn between both her John and Keating, her love was equal for them both. It pained her at times.  
"I'm the luckiest man to have you as my wife." Keating looked down at his wife's soulful eyes and found himself filled with sentiment.  
"Get gone to your Doris, you'll have a chap shedding tears." he playfully patted her bottom and broke the intense mood.  
That was his way. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I cannot live without you!" John cried out. "Do not ask it of me!"  
"Nor can you live without your Mouse." Constance spoke softly.  
"That is different. I love you both with all my heart but I cannot choose." John churned with emotion, he was genuinely frightened that this was to be goodbye.  
"It wouldn't be a choice for she is your wife, we are both married John and so far we have been lucky in that we have yet to be caught. The scandal it would cause with your position and think what it would do to Mouse." Constance went on.  
"We can be more discreet! Constance you are my love, my passion is awakened by you. Till you I had no idea of such wonderful things between lovers...." John stammered to find the words.  
"You were a pious boy and perhaps I was wrong to do as I did." Constance looked away sadly.  
"You weren't much older than myself, I do not care about your past or the rumours. I fell in love with you and to this day my heart is yours." John said earnestly.  
John..we cannot keep doing this." Constance felt her heart break as she told him they needed to be apart.  
She cried herself sick once he left.  
John returned home to his wife and children and avoided them in the only way he knew best.  
He locked his study's door and drank himself to a stupor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You have a visitor."  
Constance stopped writing her letter and swallowed nervously as Mouse was ushered into her drawing room.  
She rose up from her desk and went to greet Katherine.  
"How lovely to see you." Constance rang the bell for tea as Mouse took a seat.  
"I realise this is terribly unexpected of me to call in on you." Katherine removed her gloves and took in her surroundings.  
"A pleasant surprise nonetheless." Constance lied. She felt her stomach flutter with nerves.  
This was his Mouse, his wife, the mother of his children.  
What ever did she want?

The maid brought in the tea and an uncomfortable silence descended on them both.  
"Is there anything troubling you?" Constance asked boldly.  
It was then that Mouse burst into tears and Constance truly felt afraid that she was the cause of the woman's anguish.  
"I need advice. Lady Constance I know you to be a good woman who has had some life experience within our circle." Mouse worded it delicately yet Constance was once again reminded of her past.  
"Indeed that is true but I assure you my husband knows all about that time in my life, I should add he has led a much more colourful life than most and he would not marry a shrinking violet which is why I am his wife." Constance came off rather stern in that moment and inwardly winced.  
"I have offended you..forgive me." Mouse stood and began to pull her gloves back on.  
"Katherine please sit, we are both grown women and whatever your dilemma is I should like to help." Constance offered smoothly.  
"It is John."  
Constance tried to steady her hand as she poured Katherine a cup of tea. When she handed the delicate China cup and saucer to her guest her hand shook a little.  
"Do go on." Constance said with what she hoped was a calm expression.  
"I believe he has taken a lover."  
At those words Constance stirred her tea and nodded. She felt her stomach turn over as she sat across from Mouse.  
Was this woman here to confess she knew all?  
"What do you know?" she asked Mouse.  
"Enough to arouse my suspicions." Katherine shook her head sadly at the thoughts that had plagued her for weeks.

 

"He drinks. He no longer has his meals with us, most of the time he works longer hours. Yesterday he shouted at our children as he had grown tired of their chatter and...and he no longer sees fit to sleep in the same bed." Katherine's cheeks flushed pink.  
"I believe him to be unfaithful."  
'Oh John you fool.' Constance thought as she patted Mouse's hand sympathetically.  
"Katherine my dear, men can be strange creatures."  
Eventually after a long and frank chat Mouse made her way home while Constance decided to get to the bottom of John's recent black moods.  
At the back of her mind she had a good idea what might have caused his tempers.  
It simply wouldn't do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John read the hand delivered letter the next morning and discreetly slipped it in his jacket pocket. He made his excuses from work and set off to the dress makers.  
The last place he had seen his Constance.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What are you doing John?" Constance took in his bleary eyes and three day stubble. He still smelled of drink, his appearance was terribly off.  
"Trying to forget you. It's not working." he could barely meet her eyes, shame flooded him.  
"It's not working for me." Constance told him, her small hands wrapped around his neck yet he held himself stiffly.  
"Do not play with me Constance." his voice wavered as he fought the urge to hold her.  
"I would never, dear John..I love you. To be apart from you as I have has cast a darkness on my days. I simply cannot bear it! Forget what I said. Can we be as we were you and I?" She cared not one whit for how unseemly this was. Why fight it?  
She loved him with a passion many never experienced in their miserable lives.  
"My love." John relented and embraced her.  
"I was stupid." she nudged at his nose with her own making him smile.  
"sssh.." John would hear no more of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was just by chance that John had forgotten to take his study keys. Normally fastidious about such things he had become careless in his sadness.  
Mouse took her opportunity and twisted the key in the lock.  
She knew it was wrong. Every part of her told her to leave and lock the door but she could not.  
The room was as she remembered.  
Mouse approached his desk, a handsome carved piece that John was quiet proud of.  
She tried the first small key but found it didn't fit into the locked draw. After rattling another key in the lock the third time was the charm as the draw smoothly opened.  
Mouse looked about sheepishly, the draw appeared to be nothing more than ink pots and paper, she breathed a sigh of relief till her eyes settled on the battered leather trunk near the window sill.  
She simply had to know what was within such a tattered piece, it was clearly from his days at Cambridge.

One should never look through another's personal effects and after an afternoon reading letter upon letter from Lady Constance Keating to her husband Mouse finally understood why.  
Some things were not meant to be shared.  
A wide range of emotions passed through her as she read of their dalliances from Constance's viewpoint.  
Her heart fluttered in her chest and plummeted at each new letter, this was no fling. This had begun before he'd even married her.  
Some of the letters enquired after Mouse and their children, some offered John fair advice on how to be a good husband. The more she read the more a strange calm engulfed her. It finally clicked, Lady Constance was the one who'd broken his heart and sent him to such a crashing low.  
Mouse carefully put the letters back and locked the trunk.  
She closed the door to his study and went up to their bedroom.

The chill made her skin prickle as she undressed. Her dressing table mirror showed a good looking woman of thirty staring back at her, her hair shone pleasingly and though her body bore the evidence of having children she was still shapely.  
'I could take a lover.' she thought to herself but she knew she didn't have the desire to become entangled in such a thing.  
Her heart lay with her husband.  
'There are worse things, he is a kind man.' she began thinking of his affair rationally.  
She knew of women whose husbands gambled away their wealth and visited whores, men who would beat their wives or who drank too much.  
John had always been a supportive husband.  
'I will tell him I will look the other way.' her tears soaked into the pillow as she lay on her side waiting and hoping he would return home soon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John crushed his lips hungrily against Constance's, the tension hummed between them both as they kissed. Each seemed to be trying to make up for the weeks they'd spent apart from one another.  
John whispered her name and pressed himself firmly against her, Constance found her legs eased apart by the nudge of his hips.  
He ached to be inside her, coiled lust made him grab her wrists firmly and hold her still as he rocked his hips, his cock strained to be free of its confines.  
There was no finesse now as they tore at each other, John's shirt ripped at the collar before Constance raked his muscled chest leaving red scratches.

He hissed as she freed him, Constance took him in her mouth. Her soft pink lips tasting at that bead of desire that showed how much he wanted her.  
John threw his head back and was almost undone, mercifully she pulled off him with a teasing lick of her tongue.  
"You're wanton." he growled.  
"You make me so." her naughty laughter filled him with fury and delight, a curious mix that had him once again handling her roughly. He pushed her down on her back and rubbed his cock against her pearl, she was slick as he teased her entrance with the smooth wide tip of his cock.  
"John please!" Constance begged him.  
She angled her hips to slyly take an inch of him but he slammed into her with a low throaty growl. They were fully joined now, his hips pushing them both towards their bliss.

"Touch yourself." John moaned in her ear, his hot breath made her shiver.  
Constance slipped her hand between her legs and circled her sensitive flesh while John sank deeper still into her sweet warmth.  
He lost himself to feel of her, eyes shut tightly as he savoured the maddening pull of her heat.  
Constance felt herself soar with her release, her thighs suddenly slack while John continued his lustful rhythm.  
John grunted as her nails dug into his backside pushing him harder against her. He moved faster, his rhythm fevered and needy. The flush of blood to his face and neck made her giddy.  
"Come inside me." She whispered to him.  
He felt the waves of pleasure hit him, John ground his hips against her then stilled.  
His eyes glazed over and with an incoherent shout he collapsed, sinking them further into the battered mattress.  
Constance laughed as he pressed tiny kisses all over her face, they broke apart to steady their breath.  
"Heavenly." he panted, his damp blonde curls stuck to his forehead and Constance brushed them away with her fingers.  
"Mouse called in to see me the other day." she told him.  
In an instant John sat up suddenly filled with dread.

"What did she say?" he ran his hand through his curls.  
This was not what he'd expected.  
"She believes you have taken yourself a lover." Constance got off the bed and began retrieving her scattered clothes.  
"What did you say?" John asked nervously.  
"I said I didn't believe you to be a man who would." She replied.  
"Do you think she believed it? Do you suspect she may know of us?" John panicked.  
"Fear not, she does not suspect of us but we will have to limit our meetings to this room from now on and as for the other it seemed like she might have believed me." Constance bent to kiss his forehead affectionately.  
"You should go home my darling, be kind to her. Cherish your wife, she adores you John."  
He watched Constance wash with the scented water and helped her dress as he always had.  
Then it was his turn and Constance chuckled as the cold washcloth made him wince, she washed him till she was confident all traces of her scent was wiped away.  
When they were both dressed it meant it was time to part ways for today at least and after lingering kiss that is just what they did.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John came home to a quiet house. The butler informed him the children had ate supper and been put to bed but Katherine had took to her bedroom early and had requested to not be disturbed.  
John crept up the stairs and peered into the nursery, his children looked angelic in their slumber. He promised to never take his anger out on them with harsh words as he had done. 

He paused at the bedroom door, he knew Mouse would most likely be asleep so he slowly opened the door and trod lightly to his side of their bed.  
Mouse was curled on her side, he undressed and slipped under the blankets.  
"You're home." she said and startled him.  
"I worked quite late." John muttered.  
The darkness made it easier to lie to his wife.

"John?"

"Yes?"

He held his breath.

"Are you well?" 

"What troubles you Mouse?" 

"You."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John wasn't sure how they came to be in each other's arms in the darkness but he was delighted that they had.  
Mouse wrapped her legs around him and locked her ankles. He was caught against her, he looked down at her and caught the unmistakable look of her anger.  
His nostrils flared as though she was challenging him, now he wasn't entirely sure of her intentions.

Mouse licked the soft skin of his neck, he tasted of warm spice and cologne. She bit him and John found his eyes rolled back in his head.  
This was new..Mouse in charge.  
He squirmed desperately within her tightly clasped legs, he had to fight for a little composure. Exciting as this was it wasn't how his Mouse usually came to him.  
She was a gentle lover, sweet and unhurried.  
The woman that held him against her and sucked at his neck was different.  
"Mouse?" He strained.  
"Shut up John." she wanted to send him crashing to his peak, to see him undone by her. He was her husband and she wanted him completely, this was her claim on him.  
'You might love her but you are mine.' she thought as he groaned his pleasure close to her ear.

John felt himself engulfed by her dewy flesh and gasped. He took her, grabbing at her thighs with a forcefulness Mouse hadn't expected of him. She wondered if he often fucked Constance like this.  
His hands lifted her legs then caught her at her ankles and Mouse blushed as he pulled her legs wide, John smiled triumphantly at her shocked expression.  
He watched her breasts bounce in time to his thrusts, he had never been as passionate with her.  
"Look at me." he grunted.  
Her anger turned to pleasure under his hard stare, Mouse let him take her this way, the intensity driving her wild.  
John was close now as he relished his mastery over his wife's body, he felt her writhe but kept his hold on her ankles.  
He tried to ignore her trembling and cries of pleasure till he spent himself hotly within her, the intensity of their coupling had burned him up.  
Exhausted as he was he released his wife's ankles and reached behind her neck, eye to eye he glared down at her then kissed her.  
As much as Katherine didn't want to give in she found herself eagerly accepting his kisses.  
"I will be a better husband." he told her.  
"Do you love me John?" she had to know, she had to hear it him say it.  
"I always have and I always will Mouse." He tenderly stroked her hair much like Constance would do to him.  
That was all she needed to know as she drifted off to sleep nestled against her husbands chest.

Whatever he had with Constance was his affair and not her concern.  
She tucked it away and never allowed herself to think of it again and John to his credit always remained discreet.  
In time it felt as though it had never happened.  
They would spend their time happily with their children and their nights with each other.  
Occasionally he would work late or call in on friends only to return the morning after full of joy and sweet words.  
He never left her alone at the social events any longer but Katherine would notice when he caught Lady Constance's eye and she wasn't so blind to not see the amount of love that could be shared within the briefest of glances.  
Katherine chose to look away and was happier for it.


End file.
